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What the world thinks about accessibility

Panelists discussing the AbilityNet Attitudes to Digital Accessibility report

Christopher Patnoe, Google: [on the challenge of consistency]

"Even if accessibility is part of your DNA, an infection can come in in the form of a leader who doesn't get it, who doesn't recognise the importance."

Download the report here: https://abilitynet.org.uk/attitudes2022

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Day 3, how are we all feeling?

Lots to digest this week and lots of great sessions on this last day too🙂

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Debbie Bradford, DWP, sharing updates on the Access to Work scheme including the Adjustment Passport:

"Once a university has put the support in place, capturing all of the support down [on the passport], so that then the student has that information so when they go to see an employer, that they can say, this is the support I have had in the past, it is the support that I will need in the future and raising awareness of Access to Work."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCvvIGcmMB4

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Dr Lynsay Shepherd, co-organiser of the RNIB - Abertay University Gaming Symposium, has just published an article on Raise The Game about the event: https://raisethegame.com/news/we-can-work-it-out-increasing-accessibility-in-the-video-games-industry

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Robin Sloan, Abertay University:

(paraphrased) "It's clear [there is] a strong desire to make tools directly accessible and easy to use, and integrated from the get go.

Developers want to do good accessible design, and there are good resources out there.

[But putting] Audio description into game engines. There's not support there, it sometimes causes problems and need a lot of extra work, a dedicated team to deliver it. There's knowledge gaps around integration."

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Robin Sloan, Abertay University:

[on integration]

"I think a lot of conversation there, within games is centred on game engines themselves, like Unity or Unreal, the mainstays of development. But game development is more fragmented than that, there’s a lot of inhouse engines too.

Those mainstream engines don't necessarily make it easier to integrate. There’s an increased cost in terms of development time and how to integrate features into them"

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Reflections on the 2022 RNIB-Abertay Accessible Gaming Symposium

Robin Sloan, Abertay University:

(paraphrased) "In games education, there's a tendancy to focus on things seperately. Maybe you focus on level design, character design, or inclusive design.

For me, teaching students how to design games and how to design for accessibility are one in the same thing."

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Disability Policy and Strategy.

Celia Hensman, The Disability Policy Centre (paraphrased):

"The burden of knowing or understanding is not on the indidivual; organisations should make them aware of what's available.

Not all disabilities are the same and not all people's accessibility needs and demands are the same. Flexible working is one approach.. but there are a plethora of options.

They should be made aware of what's available to them."

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Back again for day two.. Catching what sessions I can around my day job.

I'll keep using this thread so feel free to mute if it's not your jam🙂

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The end of a great day of sessions.

I'll try to thread some more here tomorrow (mute the thread if you prefer) but so much food for thought today.

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Fairytales and Disability

Francesca Martinez:

"Stories reflect how we see ourselves and how we relate to each other. We have to be careful about the messages portrayed, especially to our young children."

"We all want the same thing: we want to be respected, we want to be loved, we want to do fulfilling work, we want to feel like valued members of society."

Francesca's play at the National Theatre: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/all-of-us

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Francesca Martinez:

"We have to erradicate the toxic attitudes and the unhealthy value systems that people fearful of difference have, within ourselves and others."

"Instead promote a more nuanced truthful view of humanity."

"I really think the path to happiness comes from loving your own body, however it works. We need to cultivate an appreciation of difference, and celebrating that difference in humanity."

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Francesca Martinez:

"[Fairytales] end up confirming very lazy prejudices about disability. I love fairytales, I loved stories.. but i did feel remarkably invisible form those worlds."

"Theres a deep assumption that disabled people crave to be normal."

"Many of these messages are not healthy. They're looking at me as a faulty product. That's a very narrow way of way of looking at a human being. I found it a very disempowering way and a very negative way."

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Francesca Martinez:

"I loved the fact that I could very quickly release the tension in the room and deal with prejudices and assumptions.

Instead of trying to challenge people's views one person at a time, comedy allowed me to do it hundreds of thousands of people.

It allowed me to humanise a scary label. There is so much fear still around difference, even though it is a normal part of humanity. Disability has always existed and it always will exist."

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Fairytales and Disability

Francesca Martinez:

"People would look at me with an expression that I later learned was pity.

As a very young child I decided that the best way to get out of this 'pity bubble' was to be funny. I felt that my humour transcended my wobbliness and made people see who I was behind my wobbles.

It quickly made me realise that i'd been born into a world that had very strong assumptions about disability."

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Media Representation of Disability

Shani Dhanda:

"Whether purposely or accidentally we have historically excluded people. When we talk about inclusion, you have to be intentional about it."

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Media Representation of Disability

Dom Hyams, Purple Goat:

"Playbooks are useful, but as one tool.

We need a holistic educational layer around disability that comes from all aspects of life. We just need to have that mind of making people feel comfortable confident.

We want to give that safe space to release the shackles of everything they've learnt about disability.

For style guides to be implemented, you want to ensure everyone is comfortable and confident"

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Media Representation of Disability

Jo Crawford, Times Radio, talking about the power of leveraging multiple formats - particularly on social media - to enable access for neurodivergent audiences:

"You can have one story but tell it in a million different ways. If you do it like that you're going to appeal to a wider audience."

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The Disability Code of Portrayal includes a commitment at the programme level to include a range of incidental, intergrated (disability present) and core (driving the story line) disabled voices.

Nicole:

"There's an explicit commitment to include at least one disabled performer, guest, presenter or contributor (with the intention for more)"

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Media Representation of Disability

Nicole Steven, Channel 4 [video] and Shani Dhanda, giving an overview of the Disability Code of Portrayal.

A set of prompts, actions and techniques to increase disability representation with nuanced and intersectional approaches.

Shani:

"We miss opportunities to challenge outdated perceptions. We miss really interesting stories."

"We need much more incidental representation. We have to stop pigeonholing"

https://assets-corporate.channel4.com/_flysystem/s3/documents/2022-07/Channel4_Disability%20Code%20of%20Portrayal_July2022.pdf

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